Events

e265

May 01, 2014

Presentation: Tangible user interaction: high tech human touch.

Room: Zi 2042

Jan van Erp

14:00-

Our skin is a complex sensory system which properties are not fully understood and which potential as information processing and communication channel have not been fully exploited. We have been studying the sense of touch and especially its use in Human Computer Interaction for nearly two decades at TNO. Important research topic is how to employ the skin as information channel for people working under the risk of sensory or cognitive overload, including pilots and astronauts. In this talk I will introduce the sense of touch as high-end information processing modality and give an anthology of the studies done at TNO since the mid-nineties. Consequently, I will sketch our recent lines of research and elaborate on “social touch”, i.e. “touch for experience and social interaction” instead of “touch for information processing”. We foresee that social touch will become an important research topic in Human Robot Interaction and the progress of virtual agents. When time allows, the topics of multisensory tangibles and tactile Brain-Computer Interfaces will be touched upon. I will conclude with a list of research topics that offer interesting possibilities to intensify the collaboration between our institutions.